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Friday, March 11, 2016

The end of daylight saving time caused a unique situation in Urbana on Sunday morning.Police there arrested a man twice in one day, but at the same exact time.

Chief Matt Lingrell explained that Niles Gammons of Urbana was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated at 1:08 a.m., then released with a summons to appear in court this week. An hour later, it was again 1:08 a.m. and police caught Gammons driving under the influence once again.

Can we please slow down and get something straight? There is simply no way to “save daylight.” People can spin the hands of their clocks like roulette wheels, but come Monday here in Washington, D.C., we’re still going to have sunshine for about 12 hours and 45 minutes. The sun can rise at a time of day we call dawn or Howdy Doody Time or whatever–but the stubborn facts of astronomy are at work here and they can’t be wished away.

The reason we have Daylight Saving Time (DST), of course, is because the politicians have mandated it. Washington is much better at wasting things than saving them, but federal lawmakers nevertheless spent much of the 20th century insisting, with typical modesty, that they could “save daylight.”

I recently wondered exactly why we observe Daylight Saving Time (DST). For some reason, I had harbored a vague notion that it had to do with farmers.

Well, it turns out that DST had nothing to do with farmers, who traditionally haven’t cared much for it. They care a lot less nowadays, but when the first DST law was making its way through Congress, farmers actually lobbied against it.

Dairy farmers were especially upset because their cows refused to accept humanity’s tinkering with the hands of time. The obstinate cud-chewers wanted to be milked every twelve hours, and had absolutely no interest in resetting their biological clocks–even if the local creameries suddenly wanted their milk an hour earlier.

As Michael Downing points out in his book, Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, urban businessmen were a major force behind the adoption of DST in the United States. They thought daylight would encourage workers to go shopping on their way home. They also tried to make a case for agriculture, though they didn’t bother to consult any actual farmers. One pamphlet argued that DST would benefit the men and women who worked the land because “most farm products are better when gathered with dew on. They are firmer, crisper, than if the sun has dried the dew off.” At least that was the claim of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, chaired by department-store magnate A. Lincoln Filene. This was utter nonsense. A lot of crops couldn’t be harvested until the morning dew had evaporated. What’s more, morning dew has no effect whatsoever on firmness or crispness.

Perhaps farmers should take one for the team–i.e., put up with DST even though they don’t like it because it keeps city cash registers chinging into the twilight. Yet the contention that DST is good for business is doubtful. It may help some businesses, but it also stands to reason that other ones suffer. If people are more likely to browse the racks at Filene’s Basement in the daylight, then they’re probably also less likely to go to the movies or take-out restaurants. And in the morning, when it’s darker during rush hour, commuters are perhaps disinclined to stop at the corner store for a newspaper or the coffee bar for a latte. Although it’s impossible to know the precise economic effects of DST, any attempt to calculate them carries the malodorous whiff of industrial policy.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here and include a gallery of construction photos from the 1881-1895 building of London's Tower Bridge, the global Scotch shortage, the science of why dogs smell each other's butts, the history of perfume, and, for Chuck Norris' birthday, a supercut of his best kicks, clips of his most badass movies, and a set of Norrisms.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

After 12 years and almost 300 episodes, the Mythbusters has ended. Here's an excellent supercut that reminds us why the show was awesome. The clips are without context, so they're mostly just explosions. Watch full screen:

Captain America: Civil War is schedule for release on May 06, 2016. Apparently the civil war aspect describes a split in the Avengers between those (led by Captain America) who want to remain autonomous and those (led by Iron Man) who want government oversight.

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

If you were suddenly awoken in the middle of the night and needed to go outside to fight off a threat or evacuate from your home, in what order would you don your clothes? Does it matter?

Military and emergency personnel are often taught a specific order in which to put on their clothes that is most efficient and effective. On ITS Tactical, Bryan Black shared the order of dressing he picked up in BUD/s: First you pull on your pants, because you’re going to need something to protect your lower body from brush, debris, hot shell casings, and what have you. Then you’ll put on your boots. If you’re not going far, you might be able to get by in barefeet, but you’ll need to be shod if you’ll be moving out over rough terrain.

David Guttenfelder. AP

Whether you put on socks or not is dependent on how much time you have; if seconds matter, you can go without. In boots and pants you’re pretty well set. If you have time, you grab a shirt too.

Of course, if a threat is truly imminent, you may need to face it down in whatever it is you wore (or didn’t wear) to bed. Like this soldier in Afghanistan who was roused from sleep by enemy fire on his post in eastern Afghanistan, and took on the enemy in his pink “I Love New York” boxers.

ICYMI: Tuesday's links are here, and include a 1953 film explaining how mechanical (pre microchip) computers worked, old English words we should still use, the story behind Strawberry Fields Forever, and the last generation of typewriter repairmen.

I'm not going to try to recount Chuck Norris' entire biography here - go to Wikipedia for that. A couple of excerpts:

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist, and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do, which is based primarily on Tang Soo Do and includes elements from every combat style he knows. Like many other martial arts, Chun Kuk Do includes a code of honor and rules to live by. These rules are from Chuck Norris's personal code. They are:

I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.

I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.

I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family.

I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.

If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.

I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.

I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.

I will always remain loyal to my God, my country, family and my friends.

I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country and myself

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sharknadofans, Syfy and The Asylum announced today that Ian Ziering will be back in Sharknado 4 (working title), reprising his role as shark-fighting hero Fin Shepard. Tara Reid is set to return as his wife April Wexler, at least for long enough to to reveal the outcome of the fan-voted #AprilLives or #AprilDies social campaign. I can imagine that she didn't get voted off. Gary Busey will play April's father.

The trailer below was released at the time of Sharknado 3 - I haven't seen a new one yet.

Oleksiy Mishchenko, of Zurich, Switzerland used a GoPro camero to capture an ostrich chasing his two companions on a a bike ride in South Africa. Per HuffPo:

"It was a little scary at first, but then I thought I gonna fell of my bike from laughter," he wrote in the video's description. "The ostrich didn't have any problem to keep up at 50km/h (31 mph) and apparently they do 70km/h (43 mph) with no sweat."

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include Oregon Trail for Adults, a declassified CIA assassination manual from 1953, what it's like to live in the town where The Walking Dead is filmed, and cities in Russia what no one is allowed to go.

Monday, March 7, 2016

UK organization Ballboys has apparently partnered with Deadpool (wiki) creator 20th Century Fox to "raise awareness and educate the population (not just the guys) on the facts, figures and issues of testicular cancer."

Ballboys is a charity that raise's awareness and educate's the population (not just the guys) on the facts, figures and issues of testicular cancer. We provide easy access to resources and information to anyone who is concerned about, or directly affected by testicular cancer.

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men aged 15-49 years old, but it is one of the most curable cancers if detected early.

Our aim is to educate men everywhere on how to check themselves for signs of testicular cancer and what to do next if worried.

Apocalypse alert: There are lots of survival guides out there, although they probably won't be of much use if the earth actually implodes.

On March 8 asteroid TX 68, a 30-metre long lump of space rock, is due to whistle past Earth as close as 19,000 miles away.

But doom mongers are not convinced it will miss us with fears we won't be able to see it because it will be obscured by the sun.

The looming event has sent online doomsday predictors into a frenzy, particularly as NASA admits it is uncertain of the orbital path and has given estimates as close as 19,000 miles away to as far as 11 million miles.

Isn’t the “Plan” being listed pretty much what happened with Jeb Bush and to a lesser degree Rick Perry and Chris Christie? A candidate that wasn’t going to win that raised tens of millions dollars from a lot of suckers that made said consultants rich?

...But in the end compared to Mike Murphy Bialystok & Bloom are pikers.

...Given what we’ve seen this skit could have easily been made in 2008 about Obama, but the makers would never have the guts

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Dame Maggie Smith (wiki) won back-to-back Emmys for her Downton Abbey(wiki) role. Per youtube, "The dowager’s insults represented the id of a fading English upper class." Well, maybe, but there is one comment, at least, more universal than that (and with which I completely agree):